Holey electrode grids for photovoltaic cells with subwavelength and superwavelength feature sizes
A photovoltaic cell and a method of forming an electrode grid on a photovoltaic semiconductor substrate of a photovoltaic cell are disclosed. In one embodiment, the photovoltaic cell comprises a photovoltaic semiconductor substrate; a back electrode electrically connected to a back surface of the substrate; and a front electrode electrically connected to a front surface of the substrate. The substrate, back electrode, and front electrode form an electric circuit for generating an electric current when said substrate absorbs light. The front electrode is comprised of a metal grid defining a multitude of holes. These holes may be periodic, aperiodic, or partially periodic. The front electrode may be formed by depositing nanospheres on the substrate; forming a metallic layer on the substrate, around the nanospheres; and removing the nanospheres, leaving an electrode grid defining a multitude of holes on the substrate.
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1. Field of the Invention
This invention generally relates to solar or light energy, and more specifically, the invention relates to photovoltaic cells.
2. Background Art
Solar energy has long been looked to as a significant part of a solution to the ever increasing energy needs of the planet's population. Increasing costs of mining fossil fuels and increased concerns over “greenhouse” emissions have furthered interest in exploiting alternative energy strategies, including solar energy sources. To date, solar energy conversion has generally relied upon either the direct harvesting of solar thermal energy, e.g., in heating applications, or in thermoelectric conversion, or through the direct conversion of photonic energy to electrical energy through the use of photovoltaic cells.
Photovoltaic cells have developed according to two distinct methods. The initial operational cells employed a matrix of single crystal silicon appropriately doped to produce a planar p-n junction. An intrinsic electric field established at the p-n junction produces a voltage by directing solar photon produced holes and free electrons in opposite directions. Despite good conversion efficiencies and long-term reliability, widespread energy collection using single-crystal silicon cells is thwarted by the exceptionally high cost of single crystal silicon material and interconnection processing.
A second approach to produce photovoltaic cells is by depositing thin photovoltaic semiconductor films on a supporting substrate. Material requirements are minimized and technologies can be proposed for mass production. The thin film structures can be designed according to doped homojunction technology such as that involving silicon films, or can employ heterojunction approaches such as those using CdTe or chalcopyrite materials. Despite significant improvements in individual cell conversion efficiencies for both single crystal and thin film approaches, photovoltaic energy collection has been generally restricted to applications having low power requirements.
In all solar cells, especially the high performance ones, series resistance issue is a serious limiting factor for cell performance. This series resistance is associated with the contact electrode geometry, emitter (top) layer sheet resistance, and metal-semiconductor contact resistance. The design of the electrode structure must consider the trade off between area coverage and the shadowing loss. A standard approach is to use comb-like metal grids or to use transparent conducting oxide (TCO) film that combines transparency and good conductivity of the film. However such TCO film still has a limited conductivity and still contributes to considerable amount of series resistance.
BRIEF SUMMARYEmbodiments of the invention provide a photovoltaic cell and a method of forming an electrode grid on a photovoltaic semiconductor substrate of a photovoltaic cell. In one embodiment, the photovoltaic cell comprises a photovoltaic semiconductor substrate having a front, light receiving surface, and a back surface; a back electrode electrically connected to said back surface; and a front electrode electrically connected to the front surface. The substrate, back electrode, and front electrode form an electric circuit for generating an electric current when said substrate absorbs light. The front electrode is comprised of a metal grid defining a multitude of holes having widths less than 1000 nms.
In one embodiment, the holes of the front electrode form a periodic pattern in the front electrode, and for example, this pattern may repeat with a period between 200 nms and 50 ums. In another embodiment, the holes of the front electrode form an aperiodic pattern in said front electrode. In another embodiment, the holes in the front electrode form a partially periodic pattern in said front electrode.
In one embodiment, the holes in the front electrode have circular shapes with diameters between 100 and 1000 nms. In one embodiment, the photovoltaic cell is for use with light at a wavelength λ, and said multitude of holes in the front electrode have widths greater than λ. In another embodiment, the photovoltaic cell is for use with light at a wavelength λ, and the multitude of holes in the front electrode have widths less than λ. In another embodiment, the photovoltaic cell is for use with light at a wavelength λ, and some of the holes in the front electrode have widths greater than λ, while others of these holes have widths less than λ. In one embodiment, the front electrode extends over a defined area of the front surface of said substrate, and the holes of the front electrode cover more than 80% of said defined area.
In one embodiment of the invention, a method is provided for forming an electrode grid on a photovoltaic semiconductor substrate. In one embodiment, the method comprises depositing a quantity of nanoshperes on said substrate; forming a metallic layer on the substrate, around said nanospheres; and removing said nanoshperes, whereby an electrode grid defining a multitude of holes is left on the substrate, electrically connected thereto.
In one embodiment, the depositing includes forming a monolayer of the nanospheres on said substrate. In an embodiment, the depositing includes trimming said nanospheres to a desired size; and, for example, this trimming may be done using O2. In one embodiment, said forming includes depositing a layer of a metal on the substrate and the nanospheres. In an embodiment, said removing includes lifting the nanospheres off said substrate; and, for example, this may be done by peeling the nanoshperes off said substrate using a tape and cleaning the substrate in a hot solvent such as acetone or NMP (N-Methyl-2-pyrrolidone)
Embodiments of the invention use metal electrode to retain its very high conductivity (˜100× larger than best TCO), patterned into holey structures with subwavelength or superwavelength feature size while maintaining the same level of shadowing loss. Depending on the size of the holes and their periodicity, the invention can achieve significant benefits such as: reduced cell series resistance, as the metal grid has larger area coverage so the current transport are not limited by the (high) emitter sheet resistance anymore, and enhanced light transmission due to subwavelength electrode linewidth (that is invisible to light) or due to plasmonics effect.
More specifically, in the device of
As mentioned above, series resistance associated with the contact electrode is a serious limiting factor for high performance solar cells.
The overall cell series resistance originates mainly from three components as shown in
Ideally a solar cell needs a contact electrode that is transparent but highly conductive to minimize the shadowing loss and series resistance losses. One attempt is to use transparent conducting oxide film such as indium tin oxide (typical transmission ˜80% and sheet resistance ˜20 Ω/sq). The present invention provides an alternative technique, utilizing an electrode grid that reduces both series resistance and effectively reduces the shadowing loss of the electrode.
With reference to
Such an electrode structure 32 provides important advantages. One significant advantage is reduced emitter series resistance (RE), since the current path from the junction to the electrode are reduced. E.g. typical finger spacing of solar cell is 500 μm and the emitter series resistance scales with this value. By having a metal grid 32 with very small lattice spacing (e.g. in order of μm) the series resistance can be reduced significantly. Another important advantage is that, in the case where the hole dimensions are larger than the wavelength of light (w>λ), the metal will cover <20% of the area, resulting in >80% transmission. At the same time, the conductivity of the film will be high. As a result, these conducting holey films can be used both for thin film PV (as a replacement for ITO or doped ZnO) and for crystalline silicon. In the case of crystalline Si, since the lateral path for the minority carrier in the silicon is shorter, it is possible to dope the emitter to lower values, thereby improving minority carrier lifetimes in the emitter.
In the case where the hole dimension is smaller than the light wavelength (w<λ), since the grid has linewidth smaller than the wavelength of light, the grid lines will be less visible to the incoming light or the reflection will be reduced. This effectively reduces the shadowing loss due to the reflection of the electrode. Further, when the grid lattice period is smaller than the light's wavelength (α<λ), embodiments of the invention can exploit a plasmonics effect of enhanced transmission phenomena through an array of subwavelength holes. This effect occurs because the periodicity of the metal structure helps to couple the light and the surface plasmons more effectively and reradiate the light energy as transmitted light. This feature is illustrated in
Fabrication of a structure with submicron structures over a large area is prohibitively expensive using standard lithography technique (deep UV or electron beam lithography). Thus a nanosphere lithography technique may be used to realize large scale but low cost patterning of a subwavelength metal grid for solar cell application.
A result of a metal grid 64 made by nanosphere lithography is shown in
While it is apparent that the invention herein disclosed is well calculated to fulfill the objects stated above, it will be appreciated that numerous modifications and embodiments may be devised by those skilled in the art, and it is intended that the appended claims cover all such modifications and embodiments as fall within the true spirit and scope.
Claims
1. A method of forming an electrode grid on a photovoltaic semiconductor substrate, comprising:
- providing a photovoltare semiconductor substrate having first and second opposite sides;
- forming a monolayer of nanospheres, in a nanospheres colloid, on a surface of only one of the first and second sides of said substrate;
- trimming the nanospheres to a desired size
- depositing a layer of a metal on the substrate and the nanospheres to form a metallic layer on the substrate, around said nanospheres; and
- removing said nanospheres from the metallic layer to form the metallic layer into an electrode grid defining a multitude of holes on the substrate and electrically connected thereto;
- wherein said multitude of holes have circular shapes with diameters between 100 and 1000 nms, said holes form a periodic pattern in said electrode grid, and said pattern repeats with a period between 200 nms and 50 μms; and
- wherein the shape, size and pattern of the holes of the electrode grid provide the electrode grid with greater than 80% transmission of light through the electrode grid.
2. The method according to claim 1, wherein said trimming includes trimming said nanospheres using O2.
3. The method according to claim 1, wherein said removing includes lifting the nanospheres off said substrate.
4. The method according to claim 3, wherein said lifting includes peeling the nanospheres off said substrate using a tape.
5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the electrode grid, due to the shape, size and pattern of the holes of the electrode grid, couples light, using a surface plasmon effect, to reradiate light energy as transmitted light.
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Type: Grant
Filed: Nov 18, 2009
Date of Patent: Oct 18, 2011
Patent Publication Number: 20100218815
Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation (Armonk, NY)
Inventors: Supratik Guha (Yorktown Heights, NY), Oki Gunawan (Yorktown Heights, NY)
Primary Examiner: David Vu
Assistant Examiner: Earl Taylor
Attorney: Scully, Scott, Murphy & Presser, P.C.
Application Number: 12/621,226
International Classification: H01L 21/44 (20060101);